UWA Apoka Rest Camp
Self-catering bandas and guesthouse · At Apoka park headquarters, Narus Valley · UWA, operated under concession by Footprints Safaris
A drawing, because nobody has sent us a photograph of UWA Apoka Rest Camp yet. Send five and this page changes the same week.
Budget
Inside the park
Park-run (UWA)
The budget way to sleep inside Kidepo: government-owned bandas at Apoka headquarters, now refurbished and run under concession by Footprints Safaris. It is self-catering with no restaurant and no mains power, so bring everything you need. What it lacks in comfort it makes up in position, in the middle of the Narus Valley game country with rangers and guides on your doorstep.
Why you'd pick it
- The cheapest beds inside the park
- Walk-up location at park headquarters, with guides on hand
- Zebra, hartebeest and reedbuck wander the camp surroundings
What's here
Arranged from the lodge:
- Birding
Read from UWA Apoka Rest Camp's own website in July 2026. Anything not listed we could not confirm, which is not the same as it being absent.
What the park charges on top
The rate above buys you a bed. Kidepo Valley National Park charges its own entry fee for every day you are inside. Here is what that adds up to.
- Park entryCharged per 24 hours rather than per night.
- $40per person, per day
- VehicleA Ugandan-registered 4x4, the usual hire car, at UGX 30,000; bring a foreign-registered one and it is $150.
- $8per vehicle, once for the trip
Three nights means three days inside, so two adults sharing one vehicle pay $248 in park fees before anyone pays for a bed.
UWA's tariff charges vehicles per 24 hours, except for concessionaire visitor vehicles, who pay once per trip. Staying at a lodge inside the park puts you in that second group, so the vehicle is counted once above rather than three times.
Entry is sold in 24-hour blocks that begin when you pass the gate, not calendar days. Time your exit before your arrival hour and two nights means two days of fees, not three.
The full fee schedule for Kidepo Valley National ParkRates
Unpublished, ask UWA. UWA's tariff accommodation table omits Kidepo entirely, so no official banda rate is published. Book through reservations@wildlife.go.ug or the toll-free line 0800 100 960.
What the rate covers is not confirmed. We do not know yet whether meals, drinks and activities are included, so read this as the bed only.
Every figure on this page is in US dollars.
Rates gathered July 2026 from operators' own published rate cards where they exist. Kidepo is unusual: nine of the eleven properties we found publish no prices at all, and several widely-listed lodges could not be verified as operating. Where we show no price, none is published; always confirm directly. Buffalo Base Guesthouse and Campsite in Karenga village was on this list until July 2026. A contact on the ground reports it closed at the start of the year. We could not reach the property to confirm, so it is off the list rather than sending anyone eight kilometres to a locked gate. NAMONI Lodge, Zebra Safari Lodge and Katurum Kidepo Lodge were added on 28 July 2026 after a reader pointed out we had missed them. All three are Ugandan owned. NAMONI's entry comes from the lodge's own 2026-27 brochure. The other two publish nothing themselves, so their entries come from booking platforms, which we say plainly because it is a weaker source than we normally use.